U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,258 discloses a method for storing a lighter-than-water fluid, e.g., oil, produced from the blowout of an offshore subsea well. The method includes the steps of deploying a containment dome in shallow water near the location of the seabed where the containment dome is to be located. The containment dome has an upper expanded dome-like fluid impervious membrane, a fluid impervious hollow peripheral ring attached to the periphery of the membrane to provide a depending bag-like container, and discrete water drainage means within the bag-like container for connection to pump conduit means therefrom. Wet sand from the seabed is then pumped into the bag-like container, and water is then drained from the wet sand through the water drainage means so as to provide a body of drained sand disposed within the bag-like container and providing a hollow peripheral ring as a hollow peripheral torus acting as a self-supporting structure and as an anchor for the dome-like structural unit. The dome is then charged with a buoyant amount of air and the buoyed dome is floated out to the site where the dome is to be deployed. It is then submerged by controllably releasing the air while substantially simultaneously filling the dome with water, thereby sinking the dome until the lighter-than-water fluid is captured within the dome, while such fluid substantially simultaneously displaces water from within the dome. U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,258 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,612 discloses an oil storage barge having a concave bottom is adapted to be anchored over a subsea well or pipeline that is leaking oil. Flexible skirts extend to the ocean floor, and oil that is trapped under the barge may be stored in the barge or then transferred to another vessel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,612 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,273 discloses a protective device installed to or around an offshore drilling platform for oil or gas and the device when in operation to encircle or enclose the platform with a floating containment device and attached oil containment curtain hanging from the device to the ocean floor. The pollution containment device is submerged normally and activated to the surface when needed. This device will entrap offshore platform pollutants in a short amount of time with a minimum amount of effort and will maintain a clean environment. Other methods of offshore platform pollution containment devices are shown, including permanent non-moving oil pollution containment barriers and activated barriers that operate internally and externally of the oil platform to form an all encompassing barrier from the ocean floor to above the water surface to hold an oil spill to the platform area. U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,273 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,444 discloses an oil/gas collector/separator for recovery of oil leaking, for example, from an offshore or underwater oil well. The separator is floated over the point of the leak and tethered in place so as to receive oil/gas floating, or forced under pressure, toward the water surface from either a broken or leaking oil well casing, line, or sunken ship. The separator is provided with a downwardly extending skirt to contain the oil/gas which floats or is forced upward into a dome wherein the gas is separated from the oil/water, with the gas being flared (burned) at the top of the dome, and the oil is separated from water and pumped to a point of use. Since the density of oil is less than that of water it can be easily separated from any water entering the dome. U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,444 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,299 discloses a method of detecting and locating fresh water springs at sea essentially by taking salinity measurements and by methods and installations for collecting the fresh water. The collection installations comprise an immersed bell-shaped reservoir containing and trapping the fresh water in its top portion, and a pumping system for taking fresh water and delivering the fresh water via a delivery pipe, characterized in that the circumference of the bottom end of the reservoir and/or the circumference of the bottom end of a chimney inside the reservoir and open at its top end and surrounding the fresh water resurgence in part and preferably in full, follow(s) closely the outline of the relief of the bottom of the sea so as to provide leakproofing between the circumference(s) and the bottom of the sea. U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,299 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
There is a need in the art for one or more of the following:
Improved systems and methods for controlling a fluid level in a vessel;
Improved systems and methods for collecting spilled oil and gas from a marine environment;
Improved systems and methods for collecting oil and gas spilling from a subsea well;
Improved systems and methods for collecting oil and gas spilling from a subsurface formation located beneath a body of water; and/or
Improved systems and methods for collecting oil and gas spilling from a subsurface formation located beneath a body of water, and then preventing the oil and gas from mixing with the water.